Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “I know how different my experience is. I am not facing potentially debilitating treatment(s) or the fear of death. Still, I am experiencing a physical transformation, a redefining of my feminine self, yet I d…
Category: Oncology/Hematology
Not a cancer survivor, not a cancer previvor: Am I a cancer preventer?
I recently had a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with an esthetic flat closure (no reconstruction). My decision took months of questions, discussion and reflection. My journey began during the final four weeks of 2021. It included: four mammograms, f…
6 changes that could lower the risk of developing prostate cancer
After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in people with a prostate. Some risk factors associated with prostate cancer can’t be mitigated. Those factors include older age, a family history of prostate cancer, …
Making the decision each day to stay in clinical medicine
I have wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. I played hospital with my dolls as a child. I never thought of alternative career paths. I climbed the long, sometimes unbearably steep mountain to reach the top. I loved clinic medicine for m…
Precision medicine: the rifle vs. shotgun approach to cancer treatment
Why does one person respond favorably to lung cancer treatment while another does not? The answer lies in their DNA. Just 20 years ago, lung cancer was broadly categorized into two groups: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (…
A difficult conversation with my mother’s oncologist
The silence felt heavy on the other end of the phone line. I waited a few seconds, and it dawned on me: He wasn’t ready. This moment, each in our own worlds was a defining point in our journey. Twenty seconds earlier, I had just shared the follow…
Mothers and sweaters: the gifts of letting go
I sifted through both cars, my own and my husband’s, underneath our boys’ baseball equipment, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles. The felt bag was nowhere to be found. I was finally ready to take this bag of a dozen sweaters, some of which were my…
Prostate cancer, sex drive, male menopause and conversations to have with your doctor
Americans are having less sex than ever before. Should we be worried? Ask your prostate. A 2022 study from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior found that the rate of all types of sexual intercourse have declined from 2009 to 2018. While t…
The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics
Two new treatments have emerged for sickle cell disease. One curative treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and the second treatment is a gene-based therapy undergoing clinical trials. While this is much-welcomed news for patients battling the disease…
Bring back CME conferences to exotic locations
It was not too long ago, but it seems like decades when traveling for a CME conference was a routine part of being a physician as looking up articles on UpToDate or giving patients bad news. But like so many other things in life, the reality of CME con…
